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CHAPTER 1

TRAP

LANCE

I grip the steering wheel and take a few deep breaths, willing myself to put my Hummer in reverse It’s what I should do But I don’t Instead, I shift into park and cut the engine I don’tendless This is the very last place I should be But I’h I know better, I can’t help myself

The whole breaking-the-cycle thing is hard to do And this is part of my cycle I come back to the people who hurtto be different Or that the process is going to cure uilt and alleviate my need to atone

It never does But I’m still here

I check an to accuht Tash, nored her until an hour ago There are twenty texts One every hour I scroll past the first nine to the ones that brought me here, to this place I shouldn’t be:

Around and around it goes So I’es—the one containing her rooetting ier for a response

I nore the last one if my teammates and closest friends, Randy Ballistic and Miller Butterson, weren’t nailed down by their balls But they are They’re both in coht for an iirlfriend is expecting a baby soon, so he’s not interested in being anywhere she’s not

It’s understandable, but itthis Truthfully, I could probably call Randy But I don’t really want to

I open the door and step out into the unseasonably war lot and enter the hotel, heading for the elevators I try not to think about how things went down the last ti

When the elevator doors open at the twenty-third floor, I alet off Almost But I’h she’s bad for me I step out into the hall My palms are sweaty, and a The way it used to when I didn’t perform the way I should’ve and my mum expressed her disappointment

But I deserved it I took the best thing in her life away

My feet feel like they’re et there, I shove my hands in my pockets and wait for the memories to fade I need a drink I need the past to stop hauntingthis with Tash